LOS AMIGOS HIGH SCHOOL

AP EUROPEAN HISTORY

Unit XVII: THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS (1881-1921)

The National Anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

WH9H Unit VIa PowerPoint Slides

Russia: Emancipation, Industrialism, and Bolshevism

LITERATURE (* Not in Flash-Cards)

What is to be Done? by Lenin

Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Bourgeois-Democratic Revolution by Lenin

GUIDED READING QUESTIONS: Kagan (750-752 & 785-792)

- Which event brought about the possibility and necessity for Reform in Russia? How was this

reform to be carried out?

- For what reasons did Alexander II choose to end the practice of serfdom in Russia in 1861?

Who opposed the czar's plan?

- What benefits did Russian serfs receive upon emancipation? For what reasons was the actual

emancipation statute considered a disappointment?

- What types of reforms did Alexander II carry out in the wake of the abolition of serfdom?

- What actions were undertaken by Alexander II in his attempt to "russify" Poland following

the Polish Rebellion of 1863 (aka The January Uprising)?

- Although Alexander II became known as the "Czar Liberator," why was he never popular?

- What were the goals of Land and Freedom - the most radical of the student organized

revolutionary groups of the movement known as Populism? What led the revolutionaries to

adopt a policy of terrorism, intended to attack the czarist regime directly?

- What was the chief goal of the Land and Freedom splinter group known as

The People's Will? What did they accomplish in 1881?

- Why did the reign of Alexander II's successor, his son Alexander III, strengthen the pessimism

of the Russian people toward their autocratic monarchy?

- Why did Russia find itself facing the common problems and afflictions of the industrial age

nearly a century after the more advanced nation-states of Europe had done so? Why did

Czars Alexander III and Nicholas II believe Russia should become an industrial power?

- Describe the major features of Russian Finance Minister Sergei Witte's program of heavy

industrialization? How did industrialization impact the lives of Russian landowners,

peasants, and workers?

- Why was Russian agriculture struggling as the 19th century came to an end? Who were the

kulaks?

- What were the goals of the Social Revolutionary Party and the Constitutional Democratic

Party (Cadets) which formed in response to Russian economic development?

- In what ways did the situation of Russian socialists differ from that of socialists in other

major European countries?

- Why was the Russian Social Democratic Party forced to function in exile? Where did most of

its leaders reside, and to whom did they look for inspiration?

- Even though the Social Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats all considered themselves

Marxists, how did they differ from one another with regards to their opinion towards both the

Marxist revolution and the structure of a Marxist political party?

- In What is to be Done? (1902), in what ways did Lenin distance himself from the opinions of

both the Social Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats, and in doing so, establish

Leninism as a unique brand of Marxism?

- How did Lenin's Marxist vision force a split in the party ranks of the Social Democrats at the

1903 London Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party? Who were the Bolsheviks,

and who were the Mensheviks?

- How did Lenin further expand his Marxist vision in Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the

Bourgeois-Democratic Revolution (1905)? Why did he feel that such a union was necessary?

- What did Russia initiate the Russo-Japanese War in 1904? What were the results of the war?

- What happened in St. Petersburg on Bloody Sunday - January 22, 1905? How did the

Russian people react to the massacre?

- What did Nicholas II promise in the October Manifesto of 1905? Why were three separate

Dumas elected over the next two years? Why, by 1907, had Nicholas reneged on most of the

promises of his manifesto?

- How did Russia's new Finance Minister, P.A. Stolypin, attempt to rally property owners

behind the czarist regime?

- What factors, as the year 1914 approached, contributed to render the position and the policy

of Russia's czar undertain?

PEOPLE:

Czar Alexander II Czar Alexander III Czar Nicholas II

Sergei Witte Gregory Plekhanov

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Father George Gapon P. A. Stolypin

(Lenin)

IMAGES:

Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg - January 22, 1905

The Russian Revolutions of 1917

"Peace, Bread, Land!" - V. I. Lenin

March Revolution, Petrograd Soviet, October Revolution, Russian Civil War

LITERATURE (* Not in Flash-Cards)

Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed

The State and Revolution by V. I. Lenin

The April Thesis by V. I. Lenin

GUIDED READING QUESTIONS:

- Why did the provisional government of Constitutional Democrats which came to power

following the czar's abdication in March, 1917, fail to earn the support of the Russian

people?

- Why did the Bolsheviks shut down the newly elected Constituent Assembly one day after it

first gathered in January, 1918? Afterwards, what actions did the Bolsheviks take in order to

consolidate their power?

- What were the harsh terms imposed on Russia by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk? Why did the

Bolsheviks accept such a terribly high price for peace?

PEOPLE:

Czar Nicholas II Alexandra von Hessen Alexis Romanov

Gregori Rasputin Alexander Kerensky Maria "Yashka" Bochkareva

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Leon Trotsky

IMAGES:

Czarina Alexandra and her daughters